A Wiccan is a person who follows the religion wicca. Wiccans are sometimes classed as "Witches". This is true but usually a witch is someone who includes spells with their wiccan studies (this is the majority of wiccans). People who do this are sometimes refered to as "Wiccan Witches".

Wiccans can be solitary practitioners (on their own) or be part of a coven. Covens don't normally accept wiccans under the age of 18.

Some do persecute or lie about wiccans because of scary images of people dancing around fires naked, but wicca is actually a very peaceful and harmonious religion, although some practitioners do go "skyclad" (naked) if they feel comfortable. Usually going skyclad is just classed as getting in touch with nature.

Some wiccans do wear alot of black, not because they are goths, but because some believe that black helps them channel energy.

A typical stereotype is that wiccans worship the devil. This is not true. In fact they believe in the goddess and the god.
Another stereotype is that wiccans "hex" or "curse" people. There are some wiccans who decide to study "black magick" but very few actually practise it because it comes back to the crafter by the threefold law (basically the threefold law is the equilvent of "what goes around comes around" but in wicca it is "An Ye Harm None, Do What Thou Wilt."

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Wicca, Sometimes refered to as: Witchcraft , or The Craft , Is a nature based religion. Followers, called Wiccans , worship 2 dieties, a god and a goddess. Some Wiccans worship others as well though the most common is the 2 dieties. There is no set path for a Wiccan and often they add or subtract parts of the religion making it offer more freedom than other religons such as Christians , or Muslims .

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1. New-Age religion/priesthood formed by Gerald Gardner, and English civil servant, around the 1950s, possibly the 1940s. The theology and practices were already established in the '40s, but the name Wicca was not applied until Gardner's publications in the '50s. Wicca is a mix of paganism based on theories of ancient practices (namely Celtic traditions), nature worship, and ceremonial magic. Masonry is also believed to play a part in Wicca. Influences on the creation of Wicca are Dr. Margret Murray (debunked theorist), Aliester Crowley, the Golden Dawn and the O.T.O. Traditional Wicca is more about the preisthood, and requires initiation from a liniaged coven and involves several "mysteries" that are only supposed to be learned in three degrees through a coven. While Wicca certainly promotes the belief in magic, it doesn't require the practice of it. The religion/priesthood has as much credibility as, say, Christianity and NAtive American Shamanism.

2. Neo-Wicca. Any form of Wicca that deviates from the liniage of Gardner's Wicca and the traditions that grew from them. Neo-Wicca focus more on the religious aspect of Wicca and does not require initiation and can be practiced solitary. Though the pracitioners of Neo-Wicca tend to be more ecclectic, there are traditions of Neo-Wicca, and practitioners still have to follow the core tenants of Wicca to be defined as such, namely the worship of a God and Goddess, adherance to the Wiccan Rede, belief in the Threefold Law/Law of Return, etc. Neo-Wicca is no less credible than Traditional Wicca.

3. Supposed ancient religion that lived "underground" society until "Old Dorthy" initiated Gerald Gardner, who later "exposed" the tradition by publishing his books. Whether or not that Old Dorthy existed is unknown, and even if this ancient path existed, it is not the Wicca that Gardner published.

4. The title given to a priest of Wicca, also called "Wiccan".

5. Old English term for "wise one" in a masculine form. The femenine is "wicce". Whether or not this is factual is debated.

6. Not what Silver RavenWolf is selling...

7. Practice often abused by teenagers and bored housewives who want to 1)rebel against their traditional roots, 2) want to have extreme power (hah!), not spiritualism, 3) are too absorbed in "the love and light" side of the New-Age and call it the wrong fackin' thing, 4) be Willow from Buffy. These people usually never really research Wicca more than a single book, if you're lucky.

1. Doreen Valiente was an initiate of Gardner's and is often called the "Grandmother of Wicca."

The Urban Dictionary Mug

A polytheistic Neo-Pagan nature religion inspired by various pre-Christian western European beliefs, whose central deity is a mother goddess and includes the use of herbal magic and benign witchcraft. Wicca is a very peaceful, harmonious and balanced way of life which promotes oneness with the divine and all which exists. Wiccans have great reverence for the Earth and for their Goddess and her consort, the horned God. Their main rule of behavior is the Wiccan Rede which forbids them from harming people, including themselves, except in some cases of self-defense. Many, perhaps most, are solitary practitioners. Others form small groups of believers, called covens, groves, etc. Because of centuries of religious propaganda and misinformation, many conservative Christians, and others, associate Wiccans with Satanists eventhough the two belief systems are as different as Christianity and Atheism. Much of modern-day Wicca can be directly traced back to the writings of Charles Leland, Margaret Murray, and Gerald Gardner. There are many beliefs concerning the origins of Wicca.

According to Gardner, Wicca: 1) began in prehistory, as ritual associated with fire, the hunt, animal fertility, plant propagation, tribal fertility, and the curing of disease; 2) developed into a religion which recognized a Supreme Deity, but realized that at their state of evolution, they "were incapable of understanding It" . Instead, they worshipped what might be termed "under-Gods": the Goddess of fertility and her horned consort, the God of the hunt; 3) continued their predominately Moon based worship, even as a mainly Sun-based faith of priests, the Druids, developed and evolved into the dominant religion of the Celts. They never formed a single political entity, but remained as many tribes who shared a common culture and religions; 4) survived the Roman, Saxon, and Norman invasions by going underground; 5) suffered major loss in numbers during the active Christian genocides, which continued into the 18th Century; 6) reached a low ebb by the middle of the 20th century. Much of the theology and ritual had been lost. Wiccan covens had become so isolated that they had lost contact with each other; and 7) was revived in the UK by himself, his High Priestess Doreen Valiente, (1922-1999) and others, who took the surviving beliefs and practices, and fleshed them out with material from other religious, spiritual and ceremonial magick sources.

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A religion that does not force others into it or try to persuade them to believe in it. Is often stereotyped as a religion where scary looking women dance around a fire in the middle of night chanting and worshiping the devil. That is not true. Wiccans believe there is both a goddess and a god, and they dont worship the devil. Wiccans are both male and female. They don't just practice spells either, some practice herblore and so on.

* Ewwwww she's all dressed in black and looks scary so she must be a witch!

* Wow, you're a witch! go on cast a spell, make me invisiblle or something!

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it\'s the reconstruction of a combination of polytheistic religions from several cultures and time periods. mainly greek, egyptian, celtic, norse, and roman to be exact. if you need to validate your spiritual path by claiming it\'s ancient, wicca isn\'t for you. witches in the burning times were not wiccan. a witch isn\'t always a wiccan and vice versa. please dont define things you dont understand, you make us wiccans seem delusional. bb and mp

The Urban Dictionary Mug

A pagan religion that focuses around the god and goddess. Wiccans do not have a bible although, some wiccans do keep a "book of shadows". Books of shadows are basically journals filled with expiriences, prayers or spells, and sometimes even things like pictures or poetry. Wiccans do not practice "Black Magic". Wiccans abide by the rule "If it harms no one do as you will". Basically, wiccans believe that if it harms no one ..you can do it, but if it does harm someone then bad things will happen to the wrong-doer threefold. Some wiccans practice alone and others chose to join covens. Covens are groups of wiccans. Wiccan and witch are two seperate words. witch-someone that uses magic. wiccan-someone that believes in the religion wicca and practices magic but abides by the rules of the religion wicca. Contrary to popular belief, wicca is not the oldest religion. Wicca came about roughly, around the 1960s. Although, wicca does draw inspiration from the oldest religions known to man. Please read a lot if you are interested in Wicca. It helps tremendously.